A liquid crystal display apparatus is typically arranged in such a manner that liquid crystal is enclosed between a pair of substrate opposing to each other. That is, in a liquid crystal display apparatus shown in FIG. 13, liquid crystal 75 is enclosed between a TFT (Thin Film Transistor) array substrate 70 and a color filter substrate 80. The TFT array substrate 70 is arranged such that a TFT circuit layer 72 including TFT elements and the like, an insulative layer 73, and pixel electrodes 74 are provided on a transparent substrate 71, and an alignment layer (not illustrated) is further provided. The color filter layer 83 (83a, 83b, and 83c) having three colors, a protruding structure section 84 where a plurality of color filter layers 83 are stacked, and an opposing electrode 85 are formed on a substrate 81, and an alignment layer (not illustrated) is further provided. In the liquid crystal display apparatus, a predetermined cell gap is maintained between the TFT array substrate 70 and the color filter substrate 80, by a spacer (not illustrated) made of plastic bead, glass fiber, and the like.
As FIG. 14 shows, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003-14917 (Tokukai 2003-14917; published on Jan. 15, 2003) and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-201750 (Tokukai 2001-201750; published on Jul. 7, 2001) have disclosed a liquid crystal display apparatus in which, instead of the spacer made of plastic bead, glass fiber, and the like, resin layers 86 formed by photolithography and the like are formed as spacers between the pixel electrodes 74 and the opposing electrode 85.
In the liquid crystal display apparatus shown in FIG. 13 and the liquid crystal display apparatus (shown in FIG. 14) disclosed by the above-mentioned patent publications, however, said at least one protruding structure section 84 made up of the color filter layers 83 being stacked is provided, so that the opposing electrode 85 on the top of said at least one protruding structure section 84 is in close vicinity of the pixel electrodes 74. That is to say, a cell gap between the pixel electrodes 74 and the opposing electrode 85 on the color filter layer 83 is 3 μm-6 μm wide, except at the color filter layers 83 constituting said at least one protruding structure section 84. Each color filter layer 83 is 0.8 μm-2 μm thick. On this account, at said at least one protruding structure section 84 where the color filter layers 83 are stacked, the distance between the opposing electrode 85 and the pixel electrodes 74 is 0.1 μm-2 μm.
Because of this arrangement, at a space between the opposing electrode 85 on said at least one protruding structure section 84 and the pixel electrodes 74, short circuit tends to occur due to a minute conductive matter 76 adhered to the opposing electrode 85, said at least one protruding structure section 84, the pixel electrodes 74, and the like, as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14. As described above, the conductive alignment layers are formed on the opposing electrode 85 and the pixel electrodes 74. These alignment layers are very thin (each 0.05 μm-0.08 μm thick), so that these alignment layers are easily ripped by the conductive matter 76.
To solve this problem, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2002-55349 (Tokukai 2002-55349; published on Feb. 20, 2002) discloses a liquid crystal display apparatus that prevents the short circuit between the opposing electrode 85 and the pixel electrodes 74 by removing either (i) an area of the opposing electrode 85 formed on said at least one protruding structure section 84 on the color filter substrate 80 shown in FIG. 14, the area facing the pixel electrodes 74 (hereinafter, this area will be referred to as a facing area of the opposing electrode 85) or (ii) an area of the pixel electrodes 74, the area facing the opposing electrode 85 formed on said at least one protruding structure section 84 (hereinafter, this area will be referred to as a facing area of the pixel electrodes 74).
Furthermore, in order to prevent the short circuit between the opposing electrode 85 and the pixel electrodes 74, the above-identified document also discloses a liquid crystal display apparatus in which an electric insulation film is sandwiched between the opposing electrode formed on the protruding structure 84 and the pixel electrodes 74 opposing to the opposing electrode.
However, among the liquid crystal display apparatuses disclosed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2002-55349, the liquid crystal display apparatus in which either the opposing area of the opposing electrode 85 or the opposing area of the pixel electrodes 74 is removed requires that the opposing electrode 85 and the pixel electrodes 74 are sufficiently detached from each other, in order to prevent the short circuit between the opposing electrode 85 and the pixel electrodes 74 on account of the misalignment between the TFT array substrate and the color filter substrate, when these members are laminated. Moreover, in the aforesaid opposing areas, no voltage is applied to liquid crystal so that the liquid crystal is not aligned. On this account, the alignment of the liquid crystal is spoiled and the leakage of light occurs, so that the image quality and display contrast deteriorate.
Also, in the liquid crystal display apparatus in which the electric insulation film is interposed between the opposing electrode 85 formed on said at least one protruding structure section 84 and the pixel electrodes 74, the insulation at the area where the opposing electrode 85 faces the pixel electrodes 74 is maintained. However, as shown in FIG. 14, short circuit by way of a conductive matter 76 may occur between (i) a part of the opposing electrode 85 along the direction of stacking the color filter layers 83 of said at least one protruding structure section 84 and (ii) the pixel electrodes 74. That is to say, the opposing electrode 85 on said at least one protruding structure section 84 in which the color filter layers 83 are stacked is closer to the pixel electrodes 74 than the opposing electrode 85 on the color filter layer 83 rather than on said at least one protruding structure section 84. On this account, the opposing electrode 85 covering said at least one protruding structure section 84 is liable to short-circuit with the pixel electrodes 74 on account of the conductive matter 76.